Race in Africa

Sitting in the auditorium, listening to John Heers speak, I felt reflective on my experience

in Zambia and how my trip related to the things that he was saying. John Heers was there as our

Comprehensive Leadership Program Fishbowl speaker. He was brought there as an example of

successful global leadership. He was there to explain to us more about his non-profit First Things

Foundation that helps connect people wanting to do service in Africa with communities. About

half-way through the presentation, the conversation took a turn. Heers started talking about his

experience of difference during the time he spent abroad. He reflected on how after spending 2

years in a community, he felt so attached to the people there that he felt like he belonged. One of

the members of that community responded to him one day that he did not belong, and that he

would never be one of them. This sent Heers on a tangent in which he explained his belief about

race in Africa. Heers claimed that there is no race in Africa. Because everyone looks the same,

skin color plays a less important role, when it comes to identifying someone, than family history.

My gut reaction to his idea was to reject the base concept. I knew that skin color mattered during

my time Zambia. It defined me as soon as I stepped off the plane, just like it does everywhere

else. The comments he made about race in Africa, blanket statements about how all of Africa

thinks, sent me into a tailspin. The next week I decided I needed to research this concept more. I

needed answers.

I decided to write my research paper on Race in Africa. It’s a tough subject because it’s

important not to generalize Africa as if its home to only one culture and set of beliefs. There are

so many countries, peoples and ethnicities in Africa that it’s impossible in a short amount of time

to make a solid conclusion about research that is true for the entire continent. I discovered

through my research that each area has a different relationship to race than the others. I believe

1
LDRS 375
that a lot of the racial relations happening throughout Africa currently, have been imported from

westernized culture during imperialism and apartheid. It is almost impossible at this point to do a

research study analyzing solely African beliefs on race because African ethnicities were divided,

named, placed, and defined by white men. After thousands of years of the voices of Africans

being silenced, it’s impossible to attempt to find them now. Overall throughout my research I

found that race is utilized in Africa for recognition, identification and division.

Race in Zambia________________________________________________________________

Racial relations in Africa were apparent to me from the moment I stepped out of the 4-

person light aircraft. The strongest revelations I had in Zambezi surrounded race and I expected

that from the beginning. I went to Zambia with the hopes of reconnecting to my roots. I had an

idealized version of Africa in my mind; that it was some sort of oasis. I thought that once I

reached “the motherland” that all of the racism, discrimination and hatred I’ve experienced my

whole life would dissolve and I would reconnect with my people who all accept and understand

me. It sounds naïve now, but that’s really what I expected Africa to be like. It’s not hard to tell

the difference between cultural elements that are historic to the area and those that became part

of the culture through colonialism.

Instead of the black half of my ethnicity being accepted by Zambians, my white half was

praised. In a way, I guess I got the acceptance that I wanted but, it felt more like I was so

privileged that I was separate once again. Our group stuck out like sore thumbs in the community

and were regarded almost on celebrity status. I hated that aspect of the trip. I went there seeking

acceptance, I wanted to be a part of the majority for the first time. Instead I felt even more

separate than I do in the U.S. Race separated our group from the Zambians and ultimately

2
LDRS 375
divided the Zambians themselves. Various conversations that I had showed me that the colorism

and racism that is present in western cultures had permeated this tiny Zambezi community.

Research findings_______________________________________________________________

During my research, I tried to gather resources from a diverse set of opinions, sources

and methods. I wanted to not only read research studies but also commentary that can analyze

the dynamics of various societies in Africa. Ultimately, 3 articles that I found by Harry Garuba,

Tom Moulrie and Kristin Shutts provided a cohesive argument for why race exists in Africa.

Harry Garuba wrote an analysis of race in Africa through utilizing four epigraphs to

ultimately speak to the diversity of usages of the category of race in Africa. The first epigraph

that he analyzes made a statement that was similar to John Heers’s.

“As long as the black man is among his own, he will have no occasion, except in minor

internal conflicts, to experience his being through others.” Frantz Fanon, The fact of

Blackness (111-112)

This statement is dependent on a concept of homogeneous blackness that Heers’s opinion also

relies on. Garuba rejects this concept adding that Fanon discounted that the racial categories

created by modernity created new racial distinctions that were not based simply on the divisions

“black” or “white.” I think this statement is important because it ultimately offers the answer to

whether race in Africa matters. Garuba explains the difference between pre-colonial local

conceptions of race in comparison to race that was produced as a political identity. At one point

in time, race in Africa may not have been as important to identification as family history but, due

to colonialism, new racial categories were created that are now relied upon heavily. Tom

3
LDRS 375
Moultrie expands on this idea with his research in South Africa, analyzing race before and after

Apartheid.

Tom Moultrie collected data in South Africa for over a century, looking at the role the

census had in determining race as a social statistic and examining self-reported race implications.

Moultrie suggests that in South Africa, the conventional view of race cannot be applied

mechanistically and that a self-reported census collection isn’t successful. Apartheid legislation

stripped individual agency about how to interpret racial identity. Moultrie’s research shows that

the South African population doesn’t collectively agree with or identify with the racial divisions

and labels created during Apartheid. This is important because it speaks to the heart of racial

relations in South Africa and can possibly be applied to other countries. Moultrie’s research

could explain why John Heers doesn’t believe that race exists in Africa. Westerners define race

based on different categories than Africans therefore causing John Heers to not notice the racial

divisions that are present. Kristin Shutts’s research uses the perspectives of children to analyze

these divisions.

Kristin Shutts performed multiple studies in South Africa in attempt to analyze

preferences of race for children. Typically, young children tend to prefer those who are similar to

them however, in countries where white people are the majority, white children tend to favor

their own race members more than minority children do. Shutts set her study in South Africa

because of its unique climate where white people are in minority but have a privileged social

status. Her study found that children, regardless of race prefer white and mixed race over Xhosa,

the regions dominant Black South African ethnic group. Her study shows that racial preferences,

at least in children, are developed based off of social status more than group size or familiarity.

4
LDRS 375
Because race is utilized so blatantly to create privilege, not only in Africa but globally, it is

impossible to state that race doesn’t exist in Africa.

Privilege Analysis_______________________________________________________________

Peggy McIntosh offers an analysis of white privilege while also paralleling male

privilege. McIntosh decided to write an analysis of white privilege by listing out the things that

occur daily in her life that are given to her that aren’t given to others because of race.

She starts this analysis with the point that whites are carefully taught to not recognize

white privilege. In schools it is easy to talk about the disadvantages that Black Americans face

but, it is never talked about in the context of the advantages that whites obtain from those

inequalities. McIntosh reflected that she was generally taught that only her people, whites,

mattered and that everyone was trying unsuccessfully to be like them. She states that some of

these notions come from being the majority population, but others are from pervasive negative

stereotyping and mythology. She offers that this obliviousness to white privilege is purposeful by

our government to maintain the myth that equality is available to all.

White identity gives people the power to choose whether to investigate racism and

privileges or to ignore them. McIntosh explains how ignoring privilege is also damaging to

whites because racism is not individual acts of meanness but rather it is systemic. As I was

reading the list of advantages she discovered, I noticed a pattern. One of the biggest general

advantages is that she can do things without having her actions be a reflection of her entire race.

This was something that Heers utilized as well. After spending 2 years in one community he

assumed that the experience he had could be applied to all cultures in Africa. He didn’t notice

5
LDRS 375
elements of racism in that community and then applied that opinion to the entire African

continent. This is one of the main failures of his argument.

Summary______________________________________________________________________

In conclusion, the difference in opinion between John Heers and I may be better defined

by a different factor. There is a difference between assuming that race didn’t exist in Africa

during pre-colonial times and assuming that race doesn’t exist in Africa currently. It’s possible

that before imperialism began and Africa was untouched, that race wasn’t relied upon as heavily

by Africans for identification purposes. Possibly Heers was referencing historical Africa rather

than current Africa. Heers’ denial of race in Africa could also be dependent on the assumption

that the structures of colonial rule disappeared with the end of colonialism. Throughout my

research, that assumption tended to be a core belief that if present, swayed the analyzer to

assume that the racial relations that exist now have always been there. I believe that it is ignorant

to assume that after colonialism Europeans left Africa and also that their status was lost. It is

imperative when reading research studies done on Africa to recognize that they are all done

through the lens of European colonial rule.

It is impossible to answer if pre-colonialism Africa utilized race and colorism for division

as much as it is now. However, through my research, I was able to conclude that race is utilized

now for recognition, identification and division and that the only way to miss it is to believe that

the effects of colonialism are not still present in Africa.

Works Cited

6
LDRS 375
Fanon, Frantz. The Fact of Blackness. Print. Moors Head Press, 2016.

Garuba, Harry. "Race in Africa: Four Epigraphs and a Commentary." PMLA 123.5 (2008): 1640-

648. Web.

Moultrie, Tom. "Used for Ill; Used for Good: A Century of Collecting Data on Race in South

Africa." Ethnic & Racial Studies 35.8 (2012): 1447. Web.

Shutts, Kristin, Kinzler, Katherine D., Katz, Rachel C., Tredoux, Colin, and Spelke, Elizabeth S.

"Race Preferences in Children: Insights from South Africa." Developmental Science 14.6

(2011): 1283-291. Web.

7
LDRS 375